Bea Reviews Death Before Decaf by Caroline Fardig

Series: Java Jive Mystery #1
Publisher: Alibi
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: November 17, 2015
Challenges: NetGalley and Edelweiss Reading Challenge
Buying Links: Amazon* | OmniLit*   | iTunes* | Barnes & Noble
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

Perfect for fans of Janet Evanovich and Diane Mott Davidson, Caroline Fardig’s captivating new mystery novel takes readers behind the counter of a seemingly run-of-the-mill coffeehouse . . . where murder is brewing.

After her music career crashes and burns spectacularly, Juliet Langley is forced to turn to the only other business she knows: food service. Unfortunately, bad luck strikes yet again when her two-timing fiancé robs her blind and runs off with her best waitress. Flushing what’s left of her beloved café down the toilet with her failed engagement, Juliet packs up and moves back to her college stomping grounds in Nashville to manage an old friend’s coffeehouse. At first glance, it seems as though nothing’s changed at Java Jive. What could possibly go wrong? Only that the place is hemorrhaging money, the staff is in open revolt, and Juliet finds one unlucky employee dead in the dumpster out back before her first day is even over.

The corpse just so happens to belong to the cook who’d locked horns with Juliet over the finer points of the health code. Unimpressed with her management style, the other disgruntled employees are only too eager to spill the beans about her fiery temper to the detective on the case. Add to the mix a hunky stranger who’s asking way too many questions, and suddenly Juliet finds herself in some very hot water. If she can’t simmer down and sleuth her way to the real killer, she’s going to get burned. 

Bea Reviews Trimmed with Murder by Sally Goldenbaum

Series: Seaside Knitters Mystery #10
Publisher: NAL
Source: owned by the reviewer
Release Date: November 3, 2015
Challenges: Cruisin' Through the Cozies
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | OmniLit*  | iTunes* | Barnes & Noble
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

All Izzy Chambers Perry wants for Christmas is to keep her brother out of jail—in this holiday yarn from the national bestselling author of A Finely Knit Murder…

In Sea Harbor the holidays mean cozy fires, festive carols, and soft skeins of yarn waiting to become hats and sweaters and scarves.  And this year Izzy and the other Seaside Knitters are also knitting tiny ornaments to decorate a tree for the first annual tree-trimming contest.

Their holiday cheer is multiplied when Izzy's younger brother, Charlie Chambers, unexpectedly arrives to volunteer at a local clinic.  He brings with him outspoken hitchhiker Amber Hanson, who is returning to Sea Harbor to claim an inheritance.  She quickly reacquaints herself with the area--and forms an unlikely friendship with Charlie.  But their bond is shattered when her body is found beneath the undecorated trees on the Harbor Green.

With Charlie a suspect in the murder, Izzy and her fellow knitters step in to uncover the truth.  It's only by peeling away long-buried secrets that they can hope to restore joy to the season, and enjoy the shining lights of the newly decorated trees.

Bea Reviews Basil Instinct by Shelley Costa

Publisher: Pocket Books Mystery
Series: Italian Restaurant Mystery #2
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: June 24, 2014
Challenges: Cruisin' Through the Cozies | Finishing the Series
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | OmniLit* | iTunes* | Barnes & Noble
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

In this second cozy mystery series that started with You Cannoli Die Once, a chef and her cousins launch their own investigation when a new sous chef turns up dead in their Italian restaurant.

When Chef Eve Angelotta’s grandmother, Maria Pia, is invited to join Belfiere, a secret all-female Italian culinary society, Eve is concerned. Rumor has it that membership is lifelong—whether you like it or not. Eve and her cousin Landon try to research Belfiere, but all they come up with is a two-year-old blog entry warning against the two-hundred-year-old society that centers around meals inspired by famous female poisoners.

Soon after, Eve’s new sous chef turns up dead just inside the front door of Miracolo, Eve’s restaurant. When they discover the sous chef had connections to Belfiere, Eve and her Italian cousins start a mission to find out what happened—before Maria Pia is made an offer she can’t refuse.

Bea Reviews You Cannoli Die Once by Shelley Costa

Publisher: Pocket Books Mystery
Series: Italian Restaurant Mystery #1
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: May 28, 2013
Challenges: Cruisin' Through the Cozies |  Finishing the Series
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | OmniLit*  | iTunes* | Barnes & Noble
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

At Miracolo Northern Italian restaurant, one can savor brilliantly seasoned veal saltimbocca, or luscious risotto alla milanese, but no cannoli. Never cannoli. Maria Pia Angelotta, the spirited seventy-six-year-old owner of the Philadelphia-area eatery that's been in her family for four generations, has butted heads with her head chef over the cannoli ban more than once. And when the head chef is your own granddaughter, things can get a little heated.

Fortunately, Eve Angelotta knows how to handle what her nonna dishes out. But when Maria Pia's boyfriend is found dead in Miracolo's kitchen, bludgeoned by a marble mortar, the question arises: Can a woman this fiery and stubborn over cream-filled pastry be capable of murder?

The police seem to think so, and they put the elder Angelotta behind bars, while Eve, sexy neighborhood attorney Joe Beck, and the entire Miracolo family parenti di sangue and otherwise try every trick in the cookbook to unravel a tangle of lies and expose a killer.

Bea Reviews Thoreau in Phantom Bog by B.B. Oak

Publisher: Kensington
Series: Henry David Thoreau Mystery #3 
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: August 25, 2015
Challenges:
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | OmniLit*  | iTunes | Barnes & Noble
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

Henry David Thorea’s impassioned activism in the Underground Railroad leads him away from the banks of Walden Pond into a morass of murder…

In the spring of 1848, Thoreau returns to Plumford, Massachusetts, in search of a fellow conductor on the Underground Railroad, who has gone missing along with the escaped female slave he was assigned to transport. With the help of his good friend, Dr. Adam Walker, Thoreau finds the conductor—shot to death on a back road.

When the two men discover that Adam’s beloved cousin Julia has given the slave safe harbor, their relief is counterbalanced by concern for Julia, who has put herself in grave danger. Another conductor has been murdered in a neighboring town and a letter has been found from someone claiming to have been hired to assassinate anyone harboring fugitive slaves. With all of them now potential targets, the need for Thoreau and Adam to apprehend the killer is more urgent than ever.

Bea Reviews A Ghostly Demise by Tonya Kappes

Publisher: Witness
Series: Ghostly Southern Mysteries #3
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: August 25, 2015
Challenges: Cruisin' Through the Cozies |  NetGalley and Edelweiss Reading Challenge
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | OmniLit* | Barnes & Noble
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

The prodigal father returns—but this ghost is no holy spirit

When she runs into her friend's deadbeat dad at the local deli, undertaker Emma Lee Raines can't wait to tell Mary Anna Hardy that he's back in Sleepy Hollow, Kentucky, after five long years. Cephus Hardy may have been the town drunk, but he didn't disappear on an epic bender like everyone thought: He was murdered. And he's heard that Emma Lee's been helping lost souls move on to that great big party in the sky.

Why do ghosts always bother Emma Lee at the worst times? Her granny's mayoral campaign is in high gear, a carnival is taking over the town square, and her hunky boyfriend, Sheriff Jack Henry Ross, is stuck wrestling runaway goats. Besides, Cephus has no clue whodunit…unless it was one of Mrs. Hardy's not-so-secret admirers. All roads lead Emma Lee to that carnival—and a killer who isn't clowning around.

Bea Reviews A Ghostly Murder by Tonya Kappes

Publisher: Witness
Series: Ghostly Southern Mystery #4
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: September 29, 2015
Challenges: Cruisin' Through the Cozies |
NetGalley and Edelweiss Reading Challenge
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | OmniLit*  | Barnes & Noble
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

Emma Lee Raines knows there's only one cure for a bad case of murder!

I told you I was sick, reads the heastone abouve Mamie Sue Preston's grave. She was the richest woman in Sleepy Hollow, Kentucky, and also the biggest hypochondriac. Ironic, considering someone killed her-proprietor of the Eternal Slumber Funeral Home, know all this? Because Mamie Sue's ghost told her, that's how! And she's offering big bucks to find the perp.

The catch is, Mamie Sue was buried by the Raines family's archrival, Burns Funeral Home. Would the Burneses stoop to framing Emma Lee's granny? With an enterprising maid, a penny-pinching pastor, and a slimy Lexington lawyer all making a killing off Mamie Sue's estate, Emma Lee needs a teammate-like her dreamboat boyfriend, Sheriff Jack Henry Ross. Because ith millions at stake, snooping around is definitely bad for Emma Lee's health.

Bea Reviews Move Your Blooming Corpse by D.E. Ireland

Publisher: Minotaur Books
Series: Eliza Doolittle & Henry Higgins #2
Source: the author/pr firm/publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: September 22, 2015
Challenges:
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | OmniLit*  | iTunes* | Barnes & Noble
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

In the second book from talented writing team D.E. Ireland, famous literary characters Eliza Doolittle and Henry Higgins once again come to life as a hilarious investigative team. Move Your Blooming Corpse explores the Edwardian racing world and the fascinating characters who people it, from jockeys to duchesses, in this delightful traditional mystery that will appeal to fans of British mysteries.

Eliza Doolittle and Henry Higgins are at the posh Royal Ascot, the biggest horse racing event of the season. Eliza's father is the new co-owner of a champion racehorse, and Eliza and Henry are excited to cheer the Donegal Dancer on to victory. However, their idyllic outing takes a serious turn when a victim is trampled during the Gold Cup race and someone is found murdered in the stables.

With time running out before the upcoming Eclipse Stakes, she and Higgins investigate jealous spouses, suffragettes and the colorful co-owners of the Donegal Dancer. But can they outrace the murderer, or will there be another blooming corpse at the finish line?

Bea Reviews The Musubi Murder by Frankie Bow

Publisher: Five Star Publishing 
Series: Molly Barda #1
Source: the pr firm in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: July 22, 2015
Challenges: COYER Summer Scavenger Hunt | Cruisin' Through the Cozies
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | iTunes* | Barnes & Noble
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from the author:

In the remote college town of Mahina, Hawaii, Molly Barda just wants to stay out of trouble until she gets tenure, but there’s a problem. A grisly prank targeting a controversial donor puts her college in financial jeopardy. Molly’s hapless ex is implicated, and Molly soon finds herself neck-deep in a stew of corruption, revenge, and murder. Along the way, she finds herself drawn to a local fast-food entrepreneur, the too-good-to-be-true Donnie Gonsalves, who seems to like her for all the wrong reasons–and has a few secrets of his own.

Review & Giveaway of A Batter of Life and Death by Ellie Alexander

Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks
Series: A Bakeshop Mystery #2
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: June 30, 2015
Challenges: COYER Summer Scavenger Hunt | Cruisin' Through the Cozies | Finishing the Series | NetGalley and Edelweiss Reading Challenge
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | OmniLit* |  Barnes & Noble
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

Welcome to Torte-a small-town family bakeshop where the coffee is hot, the muffins are fresh, and the cakes are definitely to die for...

It's autumn in Ashland, Oregon-'tis the season for a spiced hot apple cider with a serving (or two) of Torte's famous peach cobbler. It's also the perfect time for Jules Capshaw to promote her family's beloved bake shop by competing in The Pastry Channel's reality show, Take the Cake. The prize is $25,000. But as Jules quickly learns, some people would kill for that kind of dough. Literally.

Then, just as Jules dusts off her Bavarian Chocolate Cake recipe and cinches up her apron, the corpse of a fellow contestant is discovered-death by buttercream. What began as a fun, tasteful televised adventure has morphed into something of a true-crime detective show for Jules and everybody else on set. Who could have killed Chef Marco, and why? Can Jules sift out the killer before someone else gets burned?

Bea Reviews Musseled Out by Barbara Ross

Publisher: Kensington
Series: Maine Clambake #3
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: April 28, 2015
Challenges: Cruisin' Through the Cozies | May 2015 Clean Sweep ARC Challenge | NetGalley and Edelweiss Reading Challenge |
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | OmniLit*  | Barnes & Noble
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

The busy summer tourist season is winding down in Busman's Harbor, Maine, but Julia Snowden senses trouble simmering for the Snowden Family Clambake Company. Shifty David Thwing - the "Mussel King" of upscale seafood restaurants - is sniffing around town for a new location. But serving iffy clams turns out to be the least of his troubles....

When Thwing is found sleeping with the fishes beneath a local lobsterman's boat, the police quickly finger Julia's brother-in-law, Sonny, as the one who cooked up the crime. Sure, everyone knows Sonny despised the Mussel King...but Julia believes he's innocent. Proving it won't be easy, though. It seems there's a lot more than murder on the menu, and Julia needs to act fast....

Includes traditional Maine clambake recipes!

Bea Reviews Deadly Desires at Honeychurch Hall by Hannah Dennison

Publisher: Minotaur Books
Series: Honeychurch Hall Mysteries #2 
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: May 5, 2015
Challenges: Cruisin' Through the Cozies | Finishing the Series |  May 2015 Clean Sweep ARC Challenge | NetGalley and Edelweiss Reading Challenge |
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | OmniLit*  | Barnes & Noble
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

When the body of a transport minister is discovered in the grounds on the Honeychurch Hall estate, suspicion as to his unusual demise naturally falls on the residents. After all, who could possibly want a high-speed train line and rolling stock depot built in their front yard?

News of the murder soon reaches our heroine Kat Stanford’s nemesis Trudy Wynne. A ruthless tabloid journalist and the ex-wife of Kat’s discarded lover, Trudy is out for revenge. She is also interested in exposing—and humiliating—Kat’s mother Iris, who is secretly the international bestselling romance writer Krystalle Storm.

As the body count begins to build, Kat becomes inextricably embroiled in the ensuing scandal. Is the minister’s death the result of a local vendetta, or could it be connected to her mother’s unusual past?

Bea Reviews The Rhyme of the Magpie by Marty Wingate

Publisher: Alibi
Series: Birds of a Feather #1
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: June 2, 2015
Challenges: Cruisin' Through the Cozies | May 2015 Clean Sweep ARC Challenge | NetGalley and Edelweiss Reading Challenge | What An Animal
Buying Links: Amazon* | OmniLit* | Kobo | Barnes & Noble
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

For readers of Laura Childs, Ellery Adams, and Jenn McKinlay, the high-flying new Birds of a Feather mystery series from Marty Wingate begins as a British woman gets caught up in a dangerous plot when her celebrity father disappears.

With her personal life in disarray, Julia Lanchester feels she has no option but to quit her job on her father’s hit BBC Two nature show, A Bird in the Hand. Accepting a tourist management position in Smeaton-under-Lyme, a quaint village in the English countryside, Julia throws herself into her new life, delighting sightseers (and a local member of the gentry) with tales of ancient Romans and pillaging Vikings.

But the past is front and center when her father, Rupert, tracks her down in a moment of desperation. Julia refuses to hear him out; his quick remarriage after her mother’s death was one of the reasons Julia flew the coop. But later she gets a distressed call from her new stepmum: Rupert has gone missing. Julia decides to investigate—she owes him that much, at least—and her father’s new assistant, the infuriatingly dapper Michael Sedgwick, offers to help. Little does the unlikely pair realize that awaiting them is a tightly woven nest of lies and murder.

Bea Reviews Clawed by L.A. Kornetsky

Publisher: Pocket Books
Series:Gin & Tonic #4
Format Read: print ARC & paperback
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: May 26, 2015
Challenges:  Cruisin' Through the Cozies |  May 2015 Clean Sweep ARC Challenge |  What An Animal |
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | OmniLit* | Barnes & Noble | 
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

In this fourth mystery in the charming and witty Gin & Tonic series, private investigators Ginny and Teddy—with the help of their faithful pets—must unravel their most intriguing case yet…

Even though she’s unlicensed as an investigator, the infamously nosy Ginny Mallard and her cohort Teddy Tonica have begun to make a name for themselves in solving cases. But Ginny still has her day job as an event planner, and the promise of a lucrative job draws her to Portland, with her shar-pei puppy, Georgie, in tow. Much to her shock and horror, however, she’s been led there under false pretenses—and discovers a body in the parlor of her client's house!

Though the cops warn her to keep her nose out of it, Ginny just can't resist the itch to solve this case, and soon gets drawn into Portland's seedy underbelly of identity theft, forgery, and of course, murder…with Teddy and his cat Penny's devoted sleuthing helping her at every turn.

Review & Giveaway - Bite the Biscuit by Linda O. Johnston

Publisher: Midnight Ink
Series: Barkery & Biscuits Mystery #1
Format Read: paperback
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: May 8, 2015
Challenges:  Cruisin' Through the Cozies |  May 2015 Clean Sweep ARC Challenge |  What An Animal |
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | OmniLit* | Barnes & Noble | 
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

Carrie Kennersly, a veterinary technician, has become known for offering healthy and popular dog treats at the clinic where she works. When the local bakery's owner moves away, Carrie jumps at the chance to convert it into the Barkery, a shop to make and sell her canine delights.

But Myra Ethman, co-owner of another pet product store, hates the new competition. At the Barkery's opening party, she badmouths Carrie's homemade dog biscuits, insisting she'll find a way to shut the place down. So when Myra is found dead with a Barkery biscuit beside her, Carrie must prove she didn't do it before she's collared for murder.

Bea Reviews The Body in the Birches by Katherine Hall Page

Publisher: William Morrow
Series: Faith Fairchild #22
Format Read: eGalley
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: May 12, 2015
Challenges:  May 2015 Clean Sweep ARC Challenge | Cruisin' Through the Cozies | NetGalley and Edelweiss Reading Challenge
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | OmniLit* | Barnes & Noble |
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

At home on Sanpere Island, Maine, caterer and amateur sleuth Faith Fairchild discovers that real estate can be murder, especially when it's all in the family, in this twenty-third book in the popular mystery series.

The Fourth of July is one of the hottest on record and even the breeze off Penobscot Bay can't seem to cool things down for Faith Fairchild and the rest of the folks on Sanpere Island. But the fireworks are just beginning. After the celebrations are over, Faith discovers a body in the woods near The Birches, an early twentieth-century "cottage."

The body is identified as The Birches' housekeeper, who seems to have succumbed to a heart attack. The death is only one of the dramatic events upending the historic house. A family gathering has been called to decide who will inherit the much loved, and very valuable, estate that has been in the Proctor family for generations. With this much money involved, it's just a matter of time before trouble arises.

Faith is juggling her own family problems. Her teenage son, Ben, has started a new job as a dishwasher at The Laughing Gull Lodge--learning things that could land him in very hot water. And her daughter Amy is worried about her new friend, Daisy Proctor. Daisy is terrified--convinced that someone is trying to eliminate her mother from getting a share of The Birches. To protect her children, Faith has to find a possible murderer--before he strikes too close to her own home.

Bea Reviews Slayed on the Slopes by Kate E. Dyer-Seeley

Publisher: Kensington
Series: Pacific Northwest #2
Format Read: eGalley
Source: publisher in exchange for an honest review
Challenges: Cruisin' Through the Cozies, NetGalley & Edelweiss Reading Challenge 
Release Date: March 31, 2014
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | Kobo | Barnes & Noble | 
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

After talking her way into a job writing for Portland's Northwest Extreme magazine, Meg Reed may now really be in over her head. Actually, about 8,000 feet over her head. . .

She's at Mount Hood's remote Silcox Hut, covering the the seriously hardcore Ridge Rangers-- Oregon's elite high-altitude rescue team--during their four-day winter training. Sure, Meg beefed up her outdoor skills over the summer . . . but she's still hoping to cover the event with some hot chocolate by the cheery fireplace. Then, during a sudden blizzard, she swears she hears gunshots. No one stranded in the hut believes her . . . until self-absorbed Ridge Ranger Ben Rogers is found outside in a pool of frozen blood. Meg's now got to find this killer quickly . . . before cabin fever does them all in.

Review & Giveaway of Criminal Confections by Colette London

Publisher: Kensington
Series: A Chocolate Whisperer Mystery #1
Format Read: Kindle galley
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: January 27, 2015
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | OmniLit* | Barnes & Noble |
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

Hayden Mundy Moore is an expert on everything chocolate, helping clients develop new products and revamp recipes until they're irresistible. But sometimes, a dash of murder finds its way into the mix. . .

Hayden Mundy Moore has bushwhacked through African jungles and haggled in exotic markets to find the finest cacao beans and the most flavorful blends. It's thrilling work but rarely dangerous--until a colleague turns up dead at the exclusive chocolate-themed Lemaître resort spa in San Francisco.

Adrienne Dowling's heart attack is blamed on an accidental overdose of the secret ingredient used in Lemaître Chocolates' new line. Hayden can't believe that conscientious Adrienne would make that mistake. And between chocolate body scrubs, cocoa mud baths, and a non-stop frenzy of chocolate-based treats, Hayden starts to suspect that she, not Adrienne, was the intended target. Finding a killer among the rival chocolatiers and potential suspects won't just be satisfying--it might save her life.

Blog Tour Review And Giveaway of Meet Your Baker by Ellie Alexander

Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks
Series: A Bakeshop Mystery #1
Format Read: eGalley
Source: from the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Reading Challenges: Cruisin' Through the Cozies 2015, NetGalley & Edelweiss Reading Challenge 2015
Release Date: December 30, 2014
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | OmniLit* | Barnes & Noble |
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

Welcome to Torte—a friendly, small-town family bake shop where the treats are so good that, sometimes, it’s criminal…


After graduating from culinary school, Juliet Capshaw returns to her quaint hometown of Ashland, Oregon, to heal a broken heart and help her mom at the family bakery. The Oregon Shakespeare Festival is bringing in lots of tourists looking for some crumpets to go with their heroic couplets. But when one of Torte’s customers turns up dead, there’s much ado about murder…


"Sure to satisfy both dedicated foodies and ardent mystery lovers alike."

--Jessie Crockett, author of Drizzled with Death

Blog Tour Review and Giveaway - Kill 'Em with Cayenne by Gail Oust

Publisher: Minotaur Books
Series: Spice Shop Mystery #2
Format Read: print ARC
Reading Challenges: Cruisin' Through the Cozies 2015, goodreads 2015
Source: the author in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: December 16, 2014
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | OmniLit* | Barnes & Noble |
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

Kill 'Em with Cayenne, a brand new finger-lickin’ good mystery from Gail Oust, featuring small-town Georgia spice shop owner Piper Prescott, a smart and spunky amateur sleuth.

Spices are flying off the shelves of Spice It Up!, and Piper Prescott couldn’t be happier. It’s that time of year again—time for the annual Brandywine Creek Barbecue Festival. Soon contestants and BBQ aficionados from all over the Southeast will converge on the town. Many of Brandywine Creek’s citizens plan to participate in the week-long festivities and are busily concocting savory rubs and sassy sauces. Among the locals vying for the grand prize are Becca Dapkins and Maybelle Humphries. The women have been arch enemies ever since Buzz Oliver dumped Maybelle after a thirteen-year courtship and started seeing Becca.

When Becca’s body is found near one of the festival booths, bludgeoned by a brisket, Maybelle becomes one of Chief Wyatt McBride’s top suspects. Determined to help clear her friend’s name, Piper begins her own investigation, much to McBride’s consternation. As the festival draws closer, will Piper and Reba Mae be able to find the real killer and clear Maybelle’s name? Will Piper make it to the annual shag contest with Doug Winters, the mild-mannered vet she’s been seeing? And, who will win the BBQ cook-off?